Canadian Grand Prix – Qualifying: Verstappen on pole, Hülkenberg 2nd

Q1:

On the drenched track of the Gilles Villeneuve circuit, raindrops merged with Guanyu Zhou’s tears. Right after leaving the pits, the Alfa Romeo driver complained of an issue with his car. He soon came to a stop at the exit of the seventh turn. Playing with the settings on his steering wheel, the Chinese driver managed to get his car running again, albeit at a slow pace, in order to make it back to the pits. This small incident caused the fourth red flag of the weekend. Not a single session on Friday and Saturday was spared from an interruption.

With the sky clearing up, the drivers kept pushing the limits of their single-seaters in order to find their bearings in constantly changing conditions. This led to many F1 cars displaying great speed from the rear. The evolution of the track’s grip was such that all drivers were forced to stay on track and string together fast laps. With every passing minute, the hierarchy was being disrupted.

Blocked by Carlos Sainz on his last attempt, Pierre Gasly was condemned to fail in 17th position. Approaching the last chicane at 300km/h, a red wall stood in front of him, forcing him to take the escape route. Already in the spotlight for blocking Alexander Albon during FP3, there was little doubt that the Spanish driver would be penalized for blocking the Alpine in qualifying.

Max Verstappen finished in first place in Q1 with a whopping lead of 6 tenths over Fernando Alonso. The other impressive performance in the first part of qualifying was Alexander Albon, who managed to bring his Williams up to 6th position, while his garage neighbor could only do better than 19th.

The eliminated in Q1: Yuki Tsunoda (16th), Pierre Gasly (17th), Nyck de Vries (18th), Logan Sargeant (19th) and Guanyu Zhou (20th).

Q2:

In front of his fans, the local hero, Lance Stroll, performed an impressive spin. Losing his car between turns 5 and 6, the Canadian slid for over 50m but managed to escape unharmed. Unharmed, but also without a top 10 finish for the Aston Martin driver who was eliminated in 13th position.

Alexander Albon, after his performance in Q1, did even better in Q2 by setting the fastest lap. With the track having dried up significantly, the Thai driver made a clever move by leaving his garage not on intermediate tires like the rest of the pack, but on red-banded slicks. For a while, with his 1’18’725 lap time, the Williams driver had a whole second advantage over the second-place driver. In the end, it was former Red Bull driver Albon who finished at the top of the timesheet, with a three-tenths lead over Max Verstappen.

The return of rain in the second part of Q2 created many pitfalls. While Charles Leclerc had asked his team to put on soft tires with intermediate compounds, the Monegasque driver couldn’t improve his lap time and was eliminated in 11th position. Disappointing result also for Sergio Perez who failed to make it to Q3. This is the fourth time in eight qualifying sessions that the Mexican driver is not in the final stages of qualifying.

The eliminated in Q2: Charles Leclerc (11th), Sergio Perez (12th), Lance Stroll (13th), Kevin Magnussen (14th), and Valtteri Bottas (20th).

Q3:

With the rain intensifying, all the drivers hurried out of the pit lane to be the first on track and set a lap time in the best possible conditions. Verstappen was the first driver to complete a lap. The Dutchman set a time of 1’27’059 that no other driver managed to beat by the end of their first attempt. Improving his reference time by a second and a half, the appearance of a red flag caused by Oscar Piastri sealed the fate of Red Bull’s competitors.

Finishing in a superb 4th place in Q3, the Australian driver was perhaps overconfident when he lost control of his McLaren at the approach to turn 8. He crashed into the barriers. A slight slide that had serious consequences. The 2021 F2 champion emerged unscathed from his damaged papaya-colored car. This new session interruption benefited Nico Hülkenberg, who crossed the finish line just before the red flags were waved around the track, securing the 2nd best time of the session. This is the German driver’s best qualifying result since his pole position in Brazil in 2010. Another performance that, once again, was achieved in wet conditions.

Fernando Alonso will start the race one position lower than he qualified in 3rd position. The Spanish driver is ahead of Lewis Hamilton and the other Mercedes of George Russell. Esteban Ocon, for the third consecutive time, will start in the Top 6. He is ahead of Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Oscar Piastri, and Alexander Albon.

Among the last drivers to set a lap, Alexander Albon made a small mistake in the final chicane. His lap got invalidated and with the rain pouring down harder, this blunder immediately disqualified him from a chance to finish in the Top 5, even though his pace in Q2 promised a very good grid position for the Thai driver.